TERADATA INTEGRATED MARKETING APPLICATIONS: DIGITAL MESSAGING

Study

Email Marketing Benchmark StudyNewsletter Subscription & Welcome Emails

Part 2: The Welcome Email

STUDY2

Contents

Executive Summary

Starting Point

Approach

5 Methodology

The initial emails after sign-up

Reach customer inboxes in minimum time

6 Quick response for good recognition

8 The waiting time before the first regular newsletter is received

8 The first contact after the sign-up – what is sent?

10 Teradata Expert Tips

The content of the welcome email

11 Good recognition as a sender

12 Whitelisting – the way into the recipient‘s address book

13 The subject line – the junk mail filter

14 Corporate information in the first email

17 The use of customer data in welcome emails

20 Cross media linking, social media and viral elements

22 Teradata Expert Tips

Conclusion

Appendix

24 List of companies

26 List of images

26 List of diagrams

European Benchmark Study: The Welcome Email (Part 2), September 2010

STUDY3

The welcome email - the first impression counts

Executive Summary

Address quality and mailing list expansion are the

two fundamental success factors in email marketing.

Welcome emails (i.e. the emails which a new newsletter

subscriber receives directly after registration) are

particularly important in this context. This is an excellent

opportunity for every email marketing manager to

impress new subscribers with their own brand and to

involve them more. In general, welcome emails have

the highest opening rates of all email campaigns. They

ideally reach the customer straight after sign-up when

their attention is at its greatest and they are awaiting a

direct response from the company.

The European Benchmark Study Newsletter Sign-up &

Welcome Emails examines the registration processes

of 80 of the biggest European e-commerce retailers,

including Ikea, OBI, Decathlon and Esprit. During the

first part of the study, (which is available separately)

the registration process up to “Subscribe Confirmation”

is analysed. Here in the second part of the study,

we analyse the welcome programme in detail. It is

surprising that many email marketing managers do

not seem to have taken the old saying “You never get

a second chance to make a first impression” on board

when it comes their own email communication. All too

often, the welcome email is still treated as a purely

technical confirmation email and valuable potential is

consequently wasted.

One of the most interesting results of the second part

of the study is, for example, the misunderstanding

between collected and used data. For instance in

Germany, only 35% of the companies used data

obtained during the registration process to personalise

the welcome emails. E-commerce providers from the

UK show how things can be done better. Here, 70%

of companies personalise the emails which form the

customer’s first impression. German companies also

have some room for improvement in advertising their

newsletters: all 20 retailers examined advertise their

newsletter on their website homepage, however the

sign-up area box is difficult to find in almost 40% of the

companies.

The German e-commerce retailers are the front runners

in terms of the speed at which the customer receives

the welcome emails.

However in the UK, a welcome email was still not sent

by 25% of the companies one day after registration and

15% of the French customers had to wait over a week

for an initial sign of life from the company. Germany

secured the top marks with 100% of the companies

STUDY4

sending the confirmation or welcome email within 10

minutes of registration.

However, only a few providers were really able to

impress when it came to sending welcome emails. Many

failed to take advantage the “welcome programme”

trend, which arouses customer curiosity for the

subsequent newsletter by repeating the key benefits,

and offers the user the opportunity to directly express

their preferences. Of the German retailers examined

only 5% provide a welcome programme. The front

runners are France and the UK with 15% respectively.

The most commonly provided information during

the registration process are the unsubscribe link/

unsubscription instructions, followed by the benefits,

a picture/link to the current newsletter, details about

the frequency of the newsletter and customer service

contact details or company information. It is also

interesting that only a small proportion of companies

use the last page of the registration process (i.e. the

confirmation page) to arouse curiosity for the first email

or the first newsletter. Fewer than 15% of companies

repeat the benefits at this very important point for user

navigation.

Starting Point

An email marketing campaign’s effectiveness increases

by the distribution of relevant content to the recipients.

This was confirmed by over half of the companies

questioned by MarketingSherpa in 20101.

To create relevant content, the newsletter subscriber

must be convinced (as described in Part 1 of the study)

to provide information about him/herself and his/her

preferences.

Do e-commerce companies really use this data for the

segmentation of the subsequent emails? Are emails

really tailored to customer needs and how are spam

complaints prevented?

Part 2 of the study examines the emails sent following

registration up to the sending of the regular newsletter

and also provides answers to important questions about

welcome and confirmation emails.

1Marketing Sherpa, Email Marketing Benchmark Report, 2010,

STUDY5

Approach

The study is based on 320 registrations to various

e-commerce retailers in Germany, France, Italy and the

UK and has been conducted by Teradata.

MethodologyIn Part 1 of the study (Newsletter Subscription Process),

the registration forms and input fields (the fields which

need to be completed to subscribe to a newsletter) were

highlighted.

In the following study, we analysed the emails sent

following registration up to the first newsletter. For

this purpose, the 20 e-commerce retailers (from the 4

countries examined in Part 1) and their websites were

used in order to request newsletters.

Therefore, within the scope of the investigation, the

emails sent by 80 companies or country subsidiaries

were compared, both nationally and internationally.

In the test for each company, four registrations were

sent at different times and conducted using different

personal data. Through this, differences in the

newsletter design (changed subject line, different offers)

which are not directly recognisable to the customer are

included in the evaluation.

A registration was carried out for a female and a male

subscriber. The second registration took place several

weeks later with a new name and a separate email

address.

Info

DMA research predicts that commercial email

generates sales of around 21.9 billion dollars.

And rather impressively, for every dollar spent

on commercial email, over 48 dollars is gener-

ated in sales.

– Direct Marketing Association,

Retail Email Subscription

Benchmark Study, 2007

linking

Form

Sign-up box

Website

Website

Confirmation Page

Fig. 1: The news!etter registration process examined by Teradata

STUDY6

The initial emails sent, through to the receipt of the

regular newsletter were then evaluated. Both the

personalisation and general approach were considered

in the evaluations, as was the brand communication.

The initial emails after sign-up are crucial to the

customer’s ongoing willingness to show interest with the

information being sent to them. A customer’s interest

is still high and the conversion rate of these emails is

also good. Furthermore, transaction confirmations were

considered as worthy reading by 64% of the addresses1.

This means that the opening rate of the welcome

or confirmation emails is much higher than that of

subsequent newsletters.

Therefore, a memorable welcome email is the first step

towards a sustainable customer relationship. Even if the

welcome emails are mainly automated, they should be

regularly optimised and reviewed.

Even if there are legal limitations which prevent

numerous adverts and offers in the first email, the initial

customer contact should be more than just a sign-up

confirmation.

Reach customer inboxes in minimum time

A prompt response to the registration of a new sub-

scriber is a generally well established finding. The

quicker a newsletter is sent following sign-up, the more

willing the customer will be to read the received email.

Due to the number of emails sent everyday, it is crucial

to use this phase of heightened attention in the best

way possible.

1Marketing Sherpa: Email-Marketing Benchmark Guide, 2009

welcome email

confirmation email

follow-up emails or programmes

follow-up emails or programmes

newsletter

newsletter

newsletter

linking

Sign-up box

Website

Website

Confirmation Page

Form

Fig. 2: The newsletter registration process examined by Teradata

STUDY7

Quick response for good recognition

In the majority of the studied registrations, a confir-

mation or welcome email was sent immediately. The first

email was usually sent within 10 minutes of registration.

With the confirmed opt-in, the quick reaction is under-

standable, as the active co-operation of the recipient is

required for the actual newsletter delivery. Therefore,

the confirmation link for registration was sent by all of

the retailers within the first 10 minutes.

With other registration processes, delayed responses

were found regardless whether the process adopted the

single opt-in or a double opt-in method.

A quarter of the UK and French retailers had a response

time of a week or more, by which time one has to

assume that many customers had lost interest.

Quote

For Volker Wiewer (Vice President Interna-

tional, Marketing Applications at Teradata),

long waiting times are incomprehensible:

“In the era of professional email marketing

systems, response times of severable days are

inexcusable. The challenge of email marketing

is no longer in prompt responses, but in a

professional introduction to the offer and a

higher conversion rate.”

Diagram 1: Time between the initial registration and receipt of the first email

24 hours 1 week More than 1 week10 minutes

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Germany

UK

Italy

France

10% 10%

25%

0%5%

0%0%

10%

0%0%0%

100%

85%

15%

75%

65%

STUDY8

The waiting time before the first regular

newsletter is receivedEven if the first email arrives in the customer’s inbox

quickly, the following newsletter will sometimes face

significant delays.

In extreme cases, the waiting time for the first news-

letter was up to three months. If there is going to be

a significant delay in the customer receiving the first

newsletter, then a corresponding welcome programme

is required to fill in the time before the first newsletter

is sent.

However, often no further contact was made between

the confirmation or welcome email and the receipt

of the newsletter. Due to the substantial gap, the

subscriber has generally forgotten about their

registration by the time they receive the first newsletter.

The first contact after the sign-up –

what is sent?At the other extreme is the sending of the current

newsletter directly after the sign-up. This direct

introduction to the regular newsletter is always

connected with single opt-in processes and is most

notably used in France and the UK. Even if the customer

does receive the requested information immediately,

the opportunity to use the heightened attention of the

customer for special offers or individual introductions is

lost.

Through the restrictive procedures in German law, none

of the retailers have confidence in the single opt-in

process. Therefore, the newsletter is never sent directly

after registration.

Info

Customer engagement is at its highest at the

start of the contact.

– Marketing Sherpa, Email Marke-

ting Benchmark Guide, 2009

Diagram 2: Time before the regular newsletter is sent

Within 2 days 1 week 1 monthSame day

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Germany

UK

Italy

France

35%

20%

10%

25% 20%

10%

20%

35%

15%10%

45%

35%

20%

0%

25%

15%

STUDY9

It should be remembered that most confirmation emails

only contain the link for the final newsletter registration,

which means in 45% of the confirmation emails there

is still some improvement potential with regards to the

design of a more appealing confirmation programme.

In other countries, the confirmation emails contain a

significantly higher proportion of advertising content, as

evaluations in the chapter “The content of the welcome

email” show. Thus, the need for further specific emails

for new customers is partially lower here.

Quote

“After the newsletter sign-up, welcome pro-

grammes are the best strategy to successfully

turn a newsletter subscriber into a customer.

Unfortunately, few online retailers currently

exploit this potential.”

– Jasmin Altenhofen, Teradata

Within 2 days 1 week 1 monthSame day

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Germany

UK

Italy

France

35%

20%

10%

25% 20%

10%

20%

35%

15%10%

45%

35%

20%

0%

25%

15%

Diagram 3: The first email: programme, regular newsletter, welcome email or confirmation

STUDY10

Despite everything, with the welcome or confirmation

programme, it is preferable to make reference to the

brand and the advantages of signing up in a targeted

way.

In Germany, 40% of retailers respond with the

corresponding programme, where the majority are

sent a relatively simple confirmation programme (i.e.

as emails which do not contain any incentives or offers

with which the customer is welcomed). Welcome

programmes which contain special offers or links to

particular services were only found in 5% of the German

emails for new customers. The situation is better in the

UK and Italy where at least 15% of emails were enhanced

in this way.

Welcome programme

Confirmation

UK France ItalyGermany

45%

40%

35%

30%

25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

0%

Diagram 4: Welcome programme versus confirmation programme

Teradata Expert Tips:

• Check the delivery settings of your email

programme. Confirmation emails should reach

subscribers within 10 minutes.

• Ensure subsequent information follows the first email

as soon as possible.The registration process should

be completed within one week of initial contact with

the customer and the customer should have already

received information such as the current newsletter.

• Design welcome or confirmation programmes which

familarise the new customers with your offers.

STUDY11

The content of the welcome email

The content of the first email is largely affected by

legal conditions in the respective countries. If restrictive

legal practice is normal, few advertising promotional

elements are incorporated into the confirmation or

welcome email. From an advertising perspective,

the initial contact can be extremely limited (as it is

in Germany). Nonetheless, even these emails with a

very narrow scope for design should contain a basic

level of personalisation and recognition or brand

communication elements.

The legal restrictions should lead to the increased

sending of a confirmation programme. Emails sent

following the first confirmation email will then be able to

contain the promotional elements which were not able

to be sent immediately.

By contrast, e-commerce companies in other countries

already send their advertising message with the first

email.

Good recognition as a senderThe company name must be specified in the subject

line, the sender address or in the additional address

information.

The design of the newsletter should be designed to

reflect the corporate branding so that it is recognised by

the recipient and reduces the risk of spam complaints.

It should be noted that the sender address is often

masked in the inbox and only the additional address

information is shown. Thus, specifying a name here or

in the subject line makes the email more important.

Around 30% of retailers forget to specify their own

brand here. In the worst case scenario, “do not respond”

or “do not reply” are shown in the “from” line. This is not

recommended.

20% 40% 60% 80% 100%0%

In the subject line

In the sender address

In the sender name

France

Italy

UK

Germany

Diagram 5: Newsletter branding

Warning

The inclusion of “do not respond” or “no reply”

in the sender address means that the dia-

logue unintentionally becomes an advertiser

monologue:

Jasmin Altenhofen, Teradata, advises:

“Dialogue marketing without searching for the

dialogue is a contradiction in itself. Don’t give

the impression that you are just interested in

sales. Your customers are looking for dialogue.”

STUDY12

The furniture retailer Ikea plays it safe by incorporating

its name into all of the necessary places for recognition.

Whitelisting – the way into the recipient’s

address book

The sender of a welcome email should enable the

customer to transfer the address into their personal

contacts list. This guarantees that the email will not

be filtered from the customer’s inbox as spam without

reaching the intended recipient.

However, saving the address is only really useful if the

address used for sending the welcome email is identical

to the general newsletter address. In Germany and the

UK, this was considered by half of examined companies.

In Italy and France, this quota decreases again to 10 or

15 % respectively.

Fig. 3: IKEA‘s sender address, email address and subject line

Different addresses

Identical addresses

UK Italy FranceGermany

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Diagram 6: Identical sender addresses with first email and regular newsletter

50% 50% 60% 65%

35%

50%

40%

50%

Quote

“Whitelisting is becoming more and more

important with the increasing number of emails

in customer inboxes. In addition to a link on

the sign-up pages or in the email, the email

address used for delivery should also not be

forgotten.”

– Volker Wiewer, Vice President

International, Marketing

Applications at Teradata

STUDY13

A special link in the email which directly indicates that

the address of the retailer should be transferred into the

contacts list is mainly provided in the UK. In the other

European countries, this opportunity to design the email

to ensure that it is delivered is rarely used. Compara-

bly, requests for saving sender address are also rarely

included in the registration process.

The subject line – the junk mail filterIf the brand has not been specified in the sender name,

this must be made up for in the subject line. Hence,

the largest amount of brand naming in all of the tested

welcome emails was found in the subject line. Double

mentions, both in the subject line and also in sender

name, are quite normal (but by no means necessary) to

draw attention to the brand.

When sending registration confirmations, it needs to be

highlighted that this is not the regular newsletter. With

a confirmed opt-in process, action requests such as

“please confirm” or “confirm” in the subject line can be

used to draw attention to other promotions.

The subject line was also earmarked with phrases such

as “registration confirmation”, “welcome email” or “reg-

istration” in the newsletters studied within the scope of

the study. This way, the subscriber is informed that it

was sent as a response to actions which he/she previ-

ously started and the newsletter clearly distinguishes

itself from junk emails.

20% 40% 60% 80% 100%0%

Request for saving of address in first mail

Request for saving of address on the sign-up page

France

Italy

UK

Germany

Diagram 7: Explicit request for whitelisting

Info

Including the company name in the subject line

increases the opening rate from 32% to 60%

compared to non-branded subject lines.

– Jupiter Research 2007

Another elegant way of sending the sign-up con-

firmation also involves an explicit thank you for the

customer’s registration. Here you are also showing

that you are directly responding to the actions of the

newsletter subscriber and are at the same time using

the opportunity to express your gratitude for the new

contact. Mentioning the subscriber by name is only used

in France and Italy and is an exception in the design of

the emails.

STUDY14

Corporate Informationen in the first emailAccording to surveys carried out by Forrester Research,

the main reason for newsletter sign-ups to online retail-

ers are special offers and reductions.3 But up-to-date

and informative content is also a reason for requesting a

newsletter.

20% 40% 60% 80% 100%0%

Retailer brand

Confirmation

Expression of thanks/ greeting

Name of subscriber

Germany

UK

Italy

France

Diagram 8: Subject line content

Diagram 9: Promotional elements in the first email

Reference to other methods of

communication

Viral elementsPromotional elements

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

5%

25%

5%

95%

10%

90%

15%

90%

15% 15%

85%

30%

France

Italy

UK

Germany

3Forrester Research, Why Consumers subscribe for email sing-ups, 2009

STUDY15

Among 90% of the European providers, offers are

already tailored to interests in the welcome email

through the inclusion of promotional elements. Despite

the strict legal conditions, even in Germany only 5% of

the companies avoid promotional elements. However,

in the first email, these are often only links to the

homepage or the specification of the benefits in the

confirmation of the newsletter subscription.

Yet a link to the homepage of the online retailer is also

the most common promotional element in the following

emails.

The other countries have a slightly higher number

of initial emails without promotional elements. The

promotional inclusions among the remaining emails are

significantly more striking in their design.

10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 80%60% 90%70% 100%0%

France

Italy

UK

Germany

Diagram 10: Promotional elements in the first email

Fig. 4: Registration confirmation from the online shop of the fashion retailer Mexx

Order tracking

Shopping basket

Search

Delivery information/ reductions

Search for shops/ addresses

Links to special products

Links to departments

Link to the retailer website

Info

Italian online users are more interested in

brands (less so in prices or easy-to-find

information) than any other comparison group

in Europe.

– Forrester Research, How to Win

Over European Online Shoppers,

2009

STUDY16

Personalised information, such as a reference to suitable

products or a link to the closest shop, are only used

to a noteworthy degree in the UK and France. The UK

also uses the largest variety of different promotional

elements in its welcome email.

Germany is overall extremely careful in incorporating

advertising, as the low percentage for the promotional

elements used indicates.

In the other countries, the first email is also somewhat

reserved when it comes to advertising. Offers such as

free delivery are most notably seen in the UK.

Kaleidoscope offers, for example, reductions on the next

online purchase. Through the HTML email design, the

layout can be closely adapted to the appearance of the

homepage. Through this, practically all of the website

navigation options are also accessible via the newsletter.

The order process is also described in more detail in the

first email to reduce any potential fears and uncertain-

ties concerning the online order.

The direct inclusion of ordering options (linking a shop-

ping basket) and order tracking are mostly incorporated

with the creation of a user account during registration

among other retailers. This, however, was not the case

with Kaleidoscope.

Buying was pushed to the forefront in the welcome

email without even having to create a user account.

Info

Text-only welcome emails are becoming

increasingly more old-fashioned. In 2008,

over 89% of retailers sent HTML welcome

emails, this in comparison with 78% in 2007

and 69% in 2006.

– Chad White: Retail Welcome

Email Benchmark

Fig. 5: Welcome email from Kaleidoscope

STUDY17

The use of customer data in welcome emailsAs already shown in Part 1 of the study, the data

collected for an online sign-up varies significantly. This

creates anticipation for individual email campaigns even

from the initial customer contact. It is surprising to note

that in Italy half of the emails sent are not enhanced by

any of the numerous items of information requested.

Some of the information gathered at sign-up is most

often used for personalising the first email in the UK

with a rate of 70%. In France, 40% of online retailers

send the first email without using the contained

information for special personalisation and in Germany

up to 35% of all welcome emails are still not enhanced

by customer data.

Info

Segmented campaigns have a 30% higher

opening rate and 50% higher click rate than

undifferentiated campaigns.

– Marketing Sherpa, Email

Marketing Benchmark Guide,

2009

Personalised

Non-personalised

UK France ItalyGermany

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Diagram 11: Data collected for personalisation

65% 70% 60% 50%

50%

30%

40%

35%

STUDY18

Requested

Used for personalisation

Requested

Used for personalisation

UK

UK

Italy

Italy

France

France

Germany

Germany

70%

50%

60%

60%

42%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Diagram 12: Collection and use of first names

Diagram 13: Collection and use of surnames

75%

43%

38%

Names are not always used for personally addressing

customers, even though both first names and surnames

were requested by most e-commerce retailers. In Ger-

many, first names are not usually used for contact by

email. This differs in English speaking countries where

emails are usually personalised with first names.

France and Italy use either first names or surnames

for email contact. The trend in the UK varies between

using first name or surname in the salutation. Another

variant is personal address using first and surname,

which is unknown for postal correspondence. This form

of address is detrimental to the goal of greater brand

loyalty.

Info

Many companies do not use the opportunity

to design their initial customer contact more

successfully in a very simple way. According to

a study by Newsmarketing in 2009, the per-

formance value increased with personalised

content in an email by at least 19%.

– Newsmarketing: Email Study

2009: Performance Values for

Commercial Email Marketing

Campaigns

54%

65% 65% 65%

8%

65%

15%

70%

STUDY19

In Italy saving postal addresses and telephone numbers

is common practice and even collecting tax numbers

is not unusual. This means that Italian customer data

and its validity can be verified with the responsible

authorities with regards to gender, names and birthday.

However, it may be questioned whether the customer is

willing to provide such sensitive information about him/

herself.

In around a quarter of the Italian suppliers, a data sheet

with all of the information collected after registration

was sent to the subscriber. This email is often sent

following registration which is associated with the

creation of a customer account. Through this, data such

as the tax number or customer number is also sent with

the full postal address in the welcome email.

Fig. 6: Italian registration confirmation

Info

According to Forrester Research, email recipi-

ents are concerned about the use of their

personal data. Therefore, apart from names,

no important information such as telephone

numbers, complete, addresses etc. should be

included in the welcome email, unless this is

absolutely necessary.

– Forrester Research, How to Win

Over European Online Shoppers,

2009

It’s worth mentioning here that under these circum-

stances there is a risk that the email could be inter-

cepted by a third party who could obtain access to

all of the customer data. Italy’s leading role across

Europe in enhancing emails with customer data also

remains questionable in this context. The data is used

to verify the correct entries not to individually address

customers.

This also explains why 40% of Italian retailers request

a telephone number during the newsletter sign-up and

why 38% also use this for personalisation. No other

country used this data for email contact.

In France and Germany, only half as many providers

were interested in this data. In the UK, this figure was

only around 15%.

This was practically identical with the postal address,

which was only requested slightly more often across

Europe. Here the data was also only verified in the

registration confirmation but was not, however, used to

personalise the email.

STUDY20

20%

Requested

Used for personalisation

UK Italy FranceGermany

40%

45%

40%

35%

30%

25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

0%

Diagram 14: Request for telephone numbers during the registration process

0%0%

20%

15%

0%

38%

Cross media linking, social media

and viral elementsThe desire for special conditions and a strong affinity

with the brand are other reasons for subscribing to a

newsletter.

This search for information can be served in the first

email with links to additional sources of information such

as blogs, special work tools (e.g. mobile telephone appli-

cations) or informative articles.

Hoepli, an Italian online book retailer, offers its cus-

tomers both additional work tools and a link to the

catalogue search function.

The online dictionaries encourage customers to visit the

website again and to even bookmark them. The link to

the search and the integration of the catalogue act as an

incentive to order products.

Only around 10% of the retailers refer to such or simi-

lar offers in the initial emails. In Germany, the rate even

decreases to 5%. It is even more rare that a link to an

up-to-date catalogue is provided. In Germany, the

catalogue is not mentioned at this point in time. In the

other countries, only a marginal proportion of 5% of the

retailers used this opportunity to link to the catalogue

and therefore to the products to be sold.

Fig. 7: Hoepli – Link provided to the catalogue and online dictionaries

Info

20% of Facebook, MySpace and/ or Twitter

users have already posted or shared content

from the confirmation email on their profile

using the option “share with friends”.

– Merkle, View from the Social

Inbox, 2010

STUDY21

Partner registrations for other brands are also possible

elements during the approach. In France, this was at

least offered by 20% of the companies. In the UK, this

opportunity to generate addresses for partners is not

used.

The generally rare use of the opportunity to generate

further addresses with welcome emails is surprising.

Requests to forward an email to friends are only used

to any degree in Germany and France. Social media

inclusions, which are indeed linked in the standard

newsletters, are not used across Europe. It is by an

announcement on Twitter or Facebook that subscribers

could effectively advertise for the brand and contribute

to the process of gaining subscribers.

Quote

“Competitors or Collaborators?

The question of competition is usually raised

first when email marketing is discussed in

connection with social media. However, both

channels complement one another superbly in

order to increase the coverage of campaigns.”

– Volker Wiewer, Vice President

International, Marketing

Applications at Teradata

5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%0%

Links to brochure

Articles, resources, Blogs

Partner registration

Diagram 15: Information content of the first email

5% 10% 15% 20% 25%0%

Link to social media sites (Facebook, Twitter etc.)

Incentive for for- warding to a friend

Link for forwarding to a friend

Diagram 16: Viral elements in the first email France

Italy

UK

Germany

STUDY22

Teradata Expert Tips:

• Verify the branding of your newsletter. It is useful to

position the brand name in the sender name field.

Mentioning the brand name several times should also

be carefully considered.

• Use the subject line to distinguish the welcome email.

Thank new subscribers for their interest in the news-

letter and consider whether to address the customer

directly in the subject line.

• Encourage the subscriber to save the newsletter

address in their contact list. In addition to a clear

link, sending the newsletter from a permanently valid

sender address is the best way to achieve this.

• Find out legally correct ways to include promotional

elements in the initial emails after registration.

• Pay attention to content – even promotional

elements can be combined with links to interesting

content. A search function for the nearest shop is an

elegant way to combine information and advertising.

• Incorporate (if legally possible) links to products

which correspond to the subscriber‘s profile.

This way, you will prolong the subscriber‘s curiosity

beyond the welcome email.

• Check the registration form. Data collected can

already be used for personalisation when addressing

the subscriber for the first time and can significantly

increase the opening rate.

STUDY23

Conclusion

The high opening rate of the welcome emails and

the heightened attention at the start of the customer

relationship suggest that the initial emails from the

e-commerce companies are well thought-out and nicely

designed.

In addition to numerous excellent examples, the study

also shows that there is still a need for action with

regards to the design and implementation of appealing

welcome or confirmation programmes.

Whether it be technical topics such as sending the

confirmation email from the subsequent email address,

distinguishing the email with the brand name, creating

appealing HTML emails or content issues (such as the

incorporation of additional offers and incentives) the

potential for overall improvement was able to be found.

The study clarifies that the initial emails sent to

subscribers are neglected by a large number of

e-commerce retailers and the opportunity to retain

subscribers and convert them into customers is often

wasted.

This is particularly clear when customer data, for

instance, the name, is collected but the greeting line

only begins with “Hello” or “Welcome” without any

signs of personalisation. Other striking examples include

missing the incorporation of links with a request to be

included in the customer’s contacts list, or the use of

an email address for the sending of the confirmation

email which does not correspond with the subsequent

newsletter sender email address.

Additionally it seems that not all of the companies have

done their homework when it comes to delivery speed.

The majority of companies responded within 10 minutes,

but some forgot their customers for up to three months

rather than responding to them immediately by directly

sending the newsletters following registration.

A welcome programme to introduce the customer to

the product or the brand are absent in most companies.

Several separate messages which are specially tailored

to the needs of new customers provide the unique

opportunity to make up for the legal restrictions of

the first email and to convert the subscriber into a

customer step-by-step. The legal situation of the

individual countries is particularly reflected in these

evaluations. Only 20% of the UK retailers send welcome

or confirmation programmes, however, in Germany, only

40% of the companies use this opportunity.

An unused feature in welcome emails is the inclusion

of social media such as Twitter or Facebook. There

is an unlimited amount of potential for distinguishing

one company from others. From the 80 e-commerce

retailers considered at the time of the study, none of

them used the opportunities arising from the inclusion

of a “Forward to a friend” or “Share with your network”

(SWYN) function in the newsletter.

New and exciting solutions are sure to be seen in future

investigations of this particular area.

Info

We have found that 80% of those that become

buyers make a purchase within the first 90

days of registration in the case of a B2C

focused company.

– Mequoda Daily, Reporting

Strategy for Content Marketing,

12.05.2009

STUDY24

Appendix

List of companies

Germany:

• C&A Online GmbH

• Conrad Electronic SE

• Esprit Retail B.V. & Co. KG

• FRONTLINE GmbH

• Görtz GmbH

• Globetrotter Ausrüstung Denart & Lechhart GmbH

• Inter IKEA Systems B.V.

• Media Markt TV-HiFi-Elektro GmbH Schwentinental

• Mexx Direct GmbH & Co. KG

• OBI GmbH & Co. Germany KG

• Otto GmbH & Co KG

• Parfümerie Douglas GmbH

• Quelle GmbH

• Rossmann Online GmbH

• Media-Saturn-Holding GmbH

• SportScheck GmbH

• Swarovski Crystal Online AG

• Tchibo direct GmbH

• TOM TAILOR Retail GmbH

• Verlagsgruppe Weltbild GmbH

UK:

• Apple Inc.

• Argos Ltd.

• Currys - DSG Retail Limited

• Dell Inc.

• Ebuyer Ltd.

• eCards Media Ltd. - trading as eCards.co.uk

• Freemans PLC

• Grattan PLC

• HMV UK Limited

• Homebase - Teil der Home Retail Group PLC

• John Lewis PLC

• Kaleidoscope PlC

• Marks & Spencer PLC

• Maybelline New York - L Oréal Ltd.

• Next Retail Ltd.

• Oli Ltd.

• Principles Retail Ltd.

• River Island Clothing Co. Limited of Chelsea House

• Tesco PLC

• Ticketmaster UK Limited

STUDY25

Italy:

• Auchan S.p.A.

• Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A

• Benetton Group S.p.A

• BOL - Mondolibri S.p.A.

• Bottega Verde S.r.L.

• Castorama - Leroy Merlin Italia S.r.l.

• Decathlon SA - OXYCOM S.r.L.

• ePlaza (Terashop S.p.A.)

• Fnac Italia S.p.A.

• Gruppo Carrefour Italia GS S.p.A.

• HOEPLI S.p.A.

• Inter IKEA Systems B.V.

• laFeltrinelli.com S.r.l.

• Leroy Merlin Italia S.r.l.

• McDonald‘s Development Italy, Inc.

• Monclick S.r.l.

• Mr.Price - Terashop S.p.A.

• OVIESSE S.p.A.

• Sugarmusic S.p.A

• YOOX S.p.A.

France:

• ACHATVIP - OLFO S.A.

• Aquarelle.com SAS

• Boulanger S.A.

• Cdiscount.com - Société anonyme à conseil

d’administration

• Darty S.A.

• Decathlon SA - OXYCOM S.r.L.

• Delamaison.fr - Elbee S.A.S.

• Electromust.com - Art Menagers Services S.A.

• FNAC DIRECT S.A.

• La Redoute S.A.

• MISTERGOODDEAL S.A.

• Mypix.com – Pixmania S.A.S.

• PriceMinister S.A.

• Rue du Commerce S.A.

• Showroomprive.com S.A.R.L.

• Smartbox Experience Ltd

• 3 Suisses France S.C.S.

• Vente-unique.com S.A.S.

• VERTBAUDET SADAS S.AS.

STUDY26

List of images

Fig. 1: The newsletter registration process examined by Teradata

Fig. 2: The emails examined by Teradata before the regular newsletter

Fig. 3: IKEA‘s sender address, email address and subject line

Fig. 4: Registration confirmation from the online shop of the fashion retailer Mexx

Fig. 5: Welcome email from Kaleidoscope

Fig. 6: Italian registration confirmation

Fig. 7: Hoepli Link provided to the catalog and online dictionaries

List of diagrams

Diagram 1: Time between the initial registration and receipt of the first email

Diagram 2: Time before the regular newsletter is sent

Diagram 3: The first email: programme, regular newsletter, welcome email or confirmation

Diagram 4: Welcome programme versus confirmation programme

Diagram 5: Newsletter branding

Diagram 6: Identical sender addresses with first email and regular newsletter

Diagram 7: Explicit request for whitelisting

Diagram 8: Subject line content

Diagram 9: Promotional elements in the first email

Diagram 10: Promotional elements in the first email

Diagram 11: Data collected for personalisation

Diagram 12: Collection and use of first names

Diagram 13: Collection and use of surnames

Diagram 14: Request for telephone numbers during the registration process

Diagram 15: Information content of the first email

Diagram 16: Viral elements in the first email

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STUDY27

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